Alices GrandDaughter
by jlister 1997
Summary: A young girl's grandmother dies, and all that she is left with is a note with a map. This leads her on a magical journey to a land that she was never aware existed, on a search for the truth, and a long-lost relation...
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, you. Yes, you. Welcome to my story, I hope you enjoy it****. Thanks due to my beta, vanilla obsessive, for bearing with me. I have to warn you; it drags on for a bit until the second or third chapter. Stick with it! Also, R&R if you ever want me to update again! I'm warning you!**

**No infringement intended, don't sue me!**

My grandmother's last few weeks had been fitful, to say the least. She didn't want anyone but my mother and I to come near her, as she was afraid of all others. They were like strangers to her, although they visited every day. She wanted no-one more than me, my mother, and that one other being.

She wouldn't stop going on about 'Tarrant'. He was a figment of her imagination, we were all sure of that, but she was stubbornly convinced of his existence. You see, my grandmother was very old and had extremely bad Alzheimer's, forgetting little things at first like one or two things off the shopping list, but it steadily progressed to her not knowing what day, month, year it was. Although, there were some memories that she clung to, unwilling to release them for they meant so much to her.

She forgot the names and faces of everyone but four people; herself, Alice Kingsley, my mother; Mia Kingsley, me; Lucinda Kingsley, and one mysterious other man. She claimed that he was like no other man that she had ever known; he was caring, passionate and stunningly handsome. She continually referred to him as Tarrant, and only she believed in him. So, when she passed away, I really was surprised as to what she left me in the will.

An envelope. She left me a brown paper envelope with no stamps or writing on the outside. I wasn't disappointed, I hadn't wanted money or valuables from my grandmother, and I was intrigued. Once home I slipped into my room when no-one was around, and slit the envelope open. Inside were another, thicker envelope and a piece of paper. I chose to read the paper first, before opening the second envelope.

It read:

_My dear Lucinda,_

_If you are reading this, then it means that I have passed away. For this, I apologise. I never wanted to leave you alone, but you are a fighter and I am sure that you will be fine._

_Now, I need you to do something for me. Remember that man I mentioned to you? _

Oh, here we go…

_Well, he was very important to me and I have a promise to keep for him. Please go to him. _

Wait, what?

_Below is a map showing you where you will find him._

I looked down, and, sure enough, there was a detailed drawing that was so large that it spilled over onto the back of the page.

_I'm sorry that it is so confusing, but I assure you that it will make sense after you get to the room of doors. _

That sounded ominous.

_Please give him the enclosed letter; I need him to know that I didn't forget about him. _

Too right, you didn't forget about him.

_All my love and more, Alice. _

_P.S. Please wear your hat._

The hat that she was referring to was a special one; it had been given to me as a present from my grandmother, and had apparently been made by my grandfather. I loved it, but I never wore it; it was far too beautiful and precious to wear for extensive periods of time. I set the letter on my side table and walked over to my wardrobe, opening the white wooden doors. I pushed the hanging clothes aside to get to the back, to a wooden box which I then lifted out and set on the floor. It had remained untouched for years: I had almost forgotten about it, but now all the memories came rushing back. I lifted the lid and smiled as I saw it inside.

The hat was green, a moderate colour, with a golden thread pattern swirling all over the exterior. I loved it and was happy to wear it, especially if my grandma wanted me to. I chose to wear a green dress and golden scarf with it to accentuate the hat's colour and pattern. I slid on some shoes - I can't even remember what they looked like now - and did my hair, looking at myself in the mirror above my desk before leaving. I sighed on my way out of the door as I realised that I was getting dressed up to visit a man that my grandmother had imagined.

I picked up the letters on my way out, inspecting the map on the way down the stairs and out of the door. It seemed to start at a place that I had christened 'tree of dreams' as many of my grandmother's dreams and nightmares started there.

I walked across the tarmac drive and onto the expansive front lawn. By 'expansive' I really mean 'absolutely enormous'. We have over five acres of land, and most of that is in front of the house, covered with trees, bushes, and much other plant life. The map showed quite a long walk to the correct tree, and this proved true, as it was nearly half an hour until I reached the right place. To fill in the long, boring walk that I had on my way there, I'll tell you a little information that might apply to the rest of the story, or just interest you to know.

As you know, my name is Lucinda Kingsley. My mother was Mia Kingsley and my grandmother was Alice Kingsley. I have never known my father or grandfather as my mother and grandmother left them before I was born, deeming it unsuitable for me to grow up with them around. It seems that we Kingsley women are doomed to be alone forever. I am 13 years old, I am homeschooled but still have friends, mostly from extra curricular activities.

My eyes are bright green, my hair is curly and ginger, and I have a rather slender figure and pale skin. I never was or will be fond of giving extended, overly detailed accounts, so that's your lot.

I reached the dream tree, not overly tired but warmed up after the lengthy walk. This land used to belong to the Ascot's, whom had wanted to marry into my family two generations ago. The man had been named Hamish, and Alice had turned him down, a radical thing to do in those days. She had, much later, bought the land from the family after Hamish's parents had died and the aristocracy had declined.

I looked at the base of the tree. The map depicted that there would be a large hole at the base of it, and there it was, easily big enough for me to fit into. I looked into the looming darkness. The air from inside was cold and still. I didn't want to go in, but the map told me to 'close my eyes and jump'. I peered in one last time, closed my eyes, and jumped in.

I expected the floor to be just out of sight, maybe two meters or less, but when I didn't hit the ground after ten seconds I began to wonder. I could feel the air whipping past my face, my hat gone from my head. I opened my eyes, not wanting to lose that hat. As soon as I had opened my eyes, I wished that I hadn't.

Lights flashed past my face, unusual objects sped in and out of view. My hat was tumbling through the air at a slower pace, now three or four feet above my head. I stretched desperately for it, not wanting to leave this hole without it. I was terrified of the bone-crunching impact with the floor that was undoubtedly awaiting me at the bottom, but that object was more important to me than life itself. I reluctantly had to stop reaching for the hat after it spun well out of reach. I looked down, seeing only a yellow spiral of light plunging down into to the infinite depth of the hole. I levelled out, holding out my arms and legs to slow down my decent. The lights gradually began to slow down, not a lot, but enough to let me know that I was decreasing in speed. I reached up, and grabbed the hat. I was so glad now to have it in my reach that I didn't notice the ground shooting up to reach me.


	2. Chapter 2

**So, this is the second chapter. I've re-posted it now, and it's better than the last one after being beta-ed by my good friend. Hope you like it, the next one's coming soon!**

I saw the ground just a few seconds before I hit it. Shielding my face, I made impact, breaking through the floor. I made second impact just moments after, not breaking through this time. I sat up steadily, groaning. I looked around and saw a chandelier sprouting from the floor. I felt gravity creep in on me again, and fell upwards, making impact with the first surface again, but not falling fast or far enough to break through. I lay groaning on the floor, waiting to fall again, but never did. I lifted my head slightly and saw a wide beam of light falling on my feet.

Several annoying questions flitted around my head: Why had grandmother sent me here? Why hadn't I fallen straight back into the hole that I must have made when I broke through the first surface? I looked around carefully and noticed that the hole seemed to have disappeared. How strange...

I let my head relax again and my thoughts returned to the first annoying question; my grandmother. Had she known about the three painful crashes that I would have to endure to prove that this man didn't exist? But, she had asked me to do this one last thing for her, even if it was all a wild goose chase, I would see it through to the end.

I looked at where the light appeared to be coming from; a small door about one and a half feet tall, and a little narrower widthways. I sat up; waiting for pain but miraculously there didn't seem to be any. I stood slowly, looking around the room. There were about eight other doors, but none were as small as the one that was open.

I looked at the paper and envelopes in my hand which were bent and dirty, but all still there. I looked at the map, studying how far I had come. There was a long sketched tube going onto the back of the paper, so I assumed that that was the hole that I had just fallen down. At the bottom of the tube was a small circular room labelled '_room of doors_'. That made sense. I walked over to the tiny door, kneeling down at the entrance. The sight outside was strange, a large garden filled with flowers, bushes and trees. All of the bushes were trimmed into marvellous complicated shapes, like a herd of unicorns, a ballerina or a dragon breathing fire. They were all blue, which was weird, and heavy with silver blossom.

I was small and slender for my age so-although it was a bit tight-I slid through the miniature doorway into the garden. I straightened, stretching, and glanced down again at the map. It showed a garden very much like the one that I was standing in now. It depicted a route through the bushes, and into a forest, where I was supposed to follow the only path all the way through it. I was then supposed to come out the other side into what looked like a field with a windmill and a table.

I set off, devotedly following the map, weaving in and out of the bushes as it showed me. I was amazed by the absence of people in the garden; the bushes looked amazingly high maintenance, so there had to be one or several gardeners. Also, there had to be an owner of the gardens, but still I saw no one. How odd. It wasn't long before I broke into 'Tulgey Wood'. The woods were made of thousands of trees which looked dead, thorny and rough, although I didn't want to touch them so I couldn't be sure about the latter. There was only one apparent way through it, and that was along a thin beaten track edged with sharp thorny bramble bushes. The path was slightly twisted and continued forwards into ominous darkness.

It was colder in the woods than it had been in the gardens. That could have been because of the dense branches intertwined high above my head, or it could have been for some other reason. I was sure that I saw something shift in the darkness on either side of me, closing in behind me. My heart rate spiked as I kicked off from the ground and sprinted into the darkness, the looming black parting just in time for me to run through it. I sprinted flat out for what felt like an hour. My muscles and lungs burned from the off, but pure unbridled terror pushed me on. I saw a grey light lurking in the distance, unwilling to come any nearer as I pushed myself to my physical limits trying to get to that dull haze to come closer.

When I finally fought through the last lingering darkness I broke out of that hell and into a field with a long single table straight ahead of me, with what looked like four people seated around it, but on closer inspection, not all of them seemed to be human. I stood panting on the edge of the forest, unsure if I should continue or not; usually an extreme entrance like that would have at least earned me a glance, but the four beings seated on and around the table didn't move. Seated was a fluffy blue cat with grey stripes lying asleep on the table, fading in and out of sight with each breath. There was a rabbit - or hare - or _something_ sitting on the right. His fur was brown and one of his ears drooped down, as if it was sulking. He was staring at the person sitting at the head of the table. On the left was a small white mouse, standing on her hind legs on a pile of books and also staring at the head. At the head of the table was a man quite unlike any other that I had ever seen.

He was wearing tattered, worn clothes that hung off his emaciated frame. His face was thin and pale, white actually, with dark shadows under his eyes. His hair was bright orange and stuck straight out to the sides, as if it was trying to escape from his head. He also wore a hat, tall and with a wide brim. It was green with a brownish pattern swirling over the brim and growing up the main body. A length of purple fabric was wrapped around the body of it and the left over part trailed behind him. It was covered with singe marks and looked like it had seen better days.

The head of the table was staring intensely at a large bottle of red liquid as if it contained the secret to immortality. He slowly reached out to it with his right hand, which was shaky and bandaged, only for it to be bitten by the small white mouse. He jerked it away, and frowned angrily at her.

"Mally!" He exclaimed, shaking his had as a blood droplet welled to the surface.

"Don't do it, Hatter." She warned, sitting down cautiously. "She wouldn't want you to."

"How do you know what she'd want?" He yelled back "Do you have any idea how hard my life has been without her? I have to see her!"

"Mally's right." The hare thing stated, with what sounded like a Scottish accent. "How would you feel if she did this?"

"She wouldn't because I wouldn't forget about her and abandon her even though I promised to visit!" His eyes looked dangerously orange, His whole personality made him radiate ferocity. I shook with fear, even though I was a reasonable distance away. I tried to gasp as he hit the table and all the cups and teapots that were set seemed to jump.

I tried to gasp, but couldn't. I tried to breath, but only the smallest amount of air filtered into my lungs. I was having an asthma attack. I felt for my inhaler, but this dress didn't have any pockets. I started to panic; if I didn't calm down I could die. I needed a drink; perhaps that would make the muscles in my throat relax. The only liquid in sight was the one on the table, the one they had been staring at. It sounds ridiculous now, that I didn't guess that that liquid was dangerous, but an oxygen-starved brain makes you do funny things. I staggered up to the table, leaning on it for support as I lurched to the bottle of ruby liquid.

The seated people noticed me for the first time as I shook the table, approaching them gasping for air. The mouse drew what looked like a pin from her belt and brandished it like a sword. The cat woke up with a start as I shook the part of the table that he had been sleeping on. The hare looked rather scared as I careened towards them, but the man remained unfazed.

"Can I help you?" He asked, sounding bored and still staring at the bottle.

"Hi." I choked out as I reached them, grabbing the bottle and pulling out the cork. "Sorry." I croaked, the bottle obviously meant a lot to them, as they were all surrounding it. I tipped it back and took three large gulps of the liquid.

"NO!" The man shouted, pulling the bottle out of my grip.

"The pishalver!" The mouse shouted, wide eyed as I gasped for air. The liquid appeared to have worked, as my throat loosened again and I could breathe again.

"Sorry about that." I coughed, "asthma attack." I coughed again, but none of them looked away from me. Their mouths hung open in amazement, and their eyes were like saucers. "I said sorry." I stated again, uncomfortable in their unfaltering gaze.

All of a sudden, they all seemed to get much bigger. I looked around and realised that I was the same height as the table, and shrinking. My clothes hung off me, and I had to cling to the dress for it to cover certain areas that I would rather remain hidden. The hat was miles too big for me now, and completely covered my face and head.

"What's happening?" I squeaked, now only two feet high, and still going, "Stop this!" I yelled, but my voice was lower in volume than normal. At the height of about two inches, I stopped getting smaller. "Help!" I yelled my voice a tiny buzz compared to normal, and muffled by the hat and clothes that covered me.

I fought against the weight of the huge quantity of fabric swamping me and stopping me from breathing. I heard great thudding footsteps approach, and then stop beside me. I stopped talking, afraid to make a sound. Light resumed, and the hat had obviously been lifted away. I was moved, tumbling over ground cushioned by my clothes. "Let me go!" I yelled, summoning the courage necessary to utter those few tiny words. I hit a hard surface and then, just for a second, I was still. Almost at once I was moving again, been shaken around, jumping around in the terrifying tumbling darkness. After only a short while, mercifully, there was an unusually large lurch and all was still. I sat there, panting with terror as I waited for something else to happen.


	3. Chapter 3

"So…"

A loud voice hissed in what was probably an attempt to be quiet. "Who are you?"

"My name is Lucinda." I yelled to match his volume. "And I'm looking for someone."

"Who is it that you're looking for?" He asked. "I know this area well, and most of the people in it."

I took a deep breath. "A man called Tarrant." I yelled back.

There was an awkward silence. "But he probably doesn't exist." I added hastily.

"No." The man replied. "He exists. Actually I know him very well. You could even say that we were related."

"Quit teasing the poor lass." Piped up a voice that I presumed was the hare rabbit thing.

"Do you want to meet him?" The large man asked.

"Yes." I replied, as convincingly as i could.

"Alright." He replied after a short pause. I felt the fabric shifting above me, and then it was pushed out of my way by large white hands. "Oh." He paused, looking shocked and embarrassed after he realised that I had become miles too small for my clothes, so was no longer wearing any. "One moment." He said suddenly, taking a handful of my green dress material and cut it apart from the rest of the garment with a small pair of scissors that he seems to have produced from nowhere. I covered myself with what was left of the tattered dress, while I heard rapid snipping going on outside my field of vision. I looked around, and saw a large wall of brocade material surrounded me. I suddenly realised that I had been scooped up, dress and all, into the hat. I couldn't be sure where I was at the moment, but I had an inkling that I had been set down on the table.

"There!" The man exclaimed, sounding rather pleased with himself. "Try this on for size." He dropped a miniature dress into the hat. I picked it up, and proceeded to turn it around in my hands to get a proper look at it from all angels.

"Hatter…" The small mouse said quietly. "Don't you feel like you're repeating yourself?" she said it very gently, but the words seemed to have great meaning. He seemed suddenly angry.

"Fine!" He barked, grabbing the tiny dress from my grip. "Let her walk around naked, then!" He flung the dress away and stormed off, slamming some door that I couldn't see. I sat still, not quite sure what I had done wrong. I thought I heard the mouse sigh, but she wasn't in my limited field of sight, so I couldn't be sure if she had. About half a minute later, the mouse popped over the rim off the hat.

"Sorry about that." She apologised, throwing the dress down to me.

I looked at it properly this time and realised that it was actually really well made. The material seemed to have magically become ruffled and puffy. I loved it; it made all my other clothes look like dregs! I slid into it, and noticed that it fitted almost perfectly, it was just a bit tight around the waist, but that was no problem as I suppose it made my look thinner; synching in my midriff.

"I love it. You said he was a hatter?"

"Well, yes, but he generally works with all fabrics and materials."

"He's very talented." I murmured, turning this way and that to admire his handiwork.

She chuckled at this. "I know."

I stood up in the hat, looking up at her. "Can you get me out?"

"Yes." she replied, jumping down to meet me. "Grab on." I held uncertainly to the back of her coat thing that she wore. She crouched and leaped onto the rim. I screamed as we sailed through the air, I was certain that the garment that she was wearing would rip, but it held. We landed softly and she gave me a strange look, one that suggested she thought that I was making a fuss over nothing. "Is something wrong?" She asked seeming annoyed after me making that much noise.

"No." I panted "I've just never jumped that high before." I looked down at the table and decided that I wouldn't risk jumping down just yet. I changed the subject hastily. "Can you help me get to Tarrant?" The mouse sighed at this.

"Well, actually you've just met him. That was him."

"HE was Tarrant?" I gasped, amazed that this angry man was the one that my grandmother had gone on about for all these years. "Did I do something to upset him?"

"No" She sighed again. "No. It was me. I'm Mally, by the way." She smiled weakly, and sat down, suddenly seeming tired. "Something like this happened before, a long time ago. Actually, it's only been about five years, but it seems like forever. I was just stupid and pointed it out; it's a very delicate issue."

"Why?" I asked, sitting down too to join her.

She glanced at me, as if she was wondering whether or not it was something that I needed to know.

"He fell in love." She stated simply, and sighed again. "She was a beautiful maiden that thought all of this," She gestured vaguely with her paw, indicating the whole area, "was a dream. He still fell for her, and they kissed in the original script, but then Disney thought that they would annoy the crap out of everyone by cutting it out and leaving their romance to the viewer's imagination."

"What?"

"Nothing." Mally replied, shaking her head. "She had more important things going on. She was the champion of Underland, and had to go back to her world. She promised to visit, but she only ever came back once. After that, she forgot about him. It's quite sad really."

"Yes." I agreed. We were silent for a few moments, each lost in our own thoughts, before she asked,

"What did you want with him, anyway?"

"It was my Grandmothers dying wish that I give something to him."

"What was her name?"

"Alice." I replied, playing with a lock of hair that had fallen into my face. I twirled it around my finger until I realised that the mouse had fallen silent. I looked at her; her face was one of wonderment and amazement.

"What?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, I'd like to thank my new Beta (**_**SlightlyGayPirate**_**) for taking over this project when my other Beta clearly lost her email address or something. Also you readers for bearing with me, and you new ones for sticking with the story this far through **** Thanks all!**

"Her name was Alice." I repeated. What was wrong with that that made everyone go weird? Tarrant snatched the letter out of its brown holder and, in his hurry, ripped the envelope. Twenty or maybe thirty photographs fell out and landed on the floor.

"That's her." He whispered, picking up one from the middle. It was an old brown one of my grandmother as a teenager, taken on one of those really annoying old cameras, where you have to sit still for ages before you get the photo.

"That was taken ages ago." I stated, going over to the pile and looking for a more recent one.

"Ages ago as in months, right?" He asked, he sounded desperate. Oops.

"No." I answered gently, "Years; decades ago. She was only 19 when that picture was taken."

"H…how old is she now?" He sounded like an upset child, desperate to be told the truth, but still denying what he already knew.

"She would be, um, eighty five?" Grandmother had never liked telling people her age. "Actually, it would probably be closer to ninety." Tarrant started shaking and his eyes went fiery orange. Mally ran to my side from under the table.

"Time." He growled, his voice taking on a Scottish accent that I hadn't noticed before. "That _frumious guddler's scut, gallymoggers noge orgal shukrn slurking urpal…_"

His voice escalated dangerously, and before long he was hurling senseless insults at an imaginary enemy that had made my Grandmother age so fast. He was still shaking uncontrollably, and it was a terrifying thing to watch.

"She never forgot you!" I screamed. He stopped mid-sentence and looked down at me.

"What did you say?" he asked, still in the Scottish accent.

"She never forgot you." I repeated. "She had a disease, Alzheimer's, which made her forget things. But she never forgot you." His eyes went slightly less orange. "She talked about you every day." Tears fought their way down my face, despite my best efforts to restrict them. "She said such amazing things about you; that you were passionate, caring and handsome." He frowned for a second, but then stopped. "And you were the very last person that she ever talked about." More tears rolled down my face. "So," I croaked. "You were her favourite, if it matters."

His eyes rolled back in his head again, but when they rolled back, they were a light blue, not a bright green, orange or red like they had been before.

"Your eyes are blue." I noted, curious as to why this was.

"Yes." He said, rubbing them tiredly. "They do that." He sighed, like it had been a long day. It had been, especially for me.

"Are you going to read the letter or not?" I asked, impatient for him to finish up here so I could go home and forget that any of this had ever happened. He made a face at me and then looked properly at the letter that he was still holding in his hand. He slowly unfolded it and began reading.

It was both interesting and weird to watch the changes that came over his face, especially his eyes, as he read the letter. To start off with, he looked slightly angry, his eyes reddening again, then he looked sad, his eyes turning the cool blue of a morning sky just after sunrise, then it actually looked as if he was about to laugh. I was irritated by the final emotion (he was _laughing_ at my grandmothers death?) but decided to just let him read on as I wasn't in the mood to argue with him at the moment.

As he read what seemed to be the final passage, he looked from the paper to me and back again at least five times before reading the last few lines and letting the paper slide from his grip and onto the floor.

He stood in silent thought for a while and I noticed that his eyes went a light grey colour tinged with flecks of dull green. I had absolutely no idea what that signified. "So?" I asked. He looked down at me, seeming to suddenly notice that I was very, very small.

"You're tiny" He noticed, kneeling down in what was probably an attempt to come down to my level, but he actually still towered over me. To come down to my level he would have to lie down on the floor and then shrink, but I don't think that he was willing to do that.

"Yes." I replied, exasperated by today's activities. "And I've been tiny since about twenty seconds after you first knew me, now what did the letter say?" I actually stamped my tiny foot on the floor in rage, causing him to giggle abruptly and then sort of fizzle out, which was weird.

"Firstly," He began, as if he was launching into a lengthy, important speech. "We must get you back to your right proper… size." He frowned again.

"What?" I yelled. "Why are you frowning?" I screamed up at him.

"What is your name?" He asked.

"LUCINDA!" I screamed. Why was he so forgetful? "I told you while I was in the hat!"

"Where _is_ that hat?" he asked, standing up properly and looking around as if he expected it to be lying on some convenient, nearby table.

"Outside." I said, pointing to the stairs. Then I realised that I was getting distracted. "What did you say about getting me back to my normal size?"

"Your right, proper Lucinda size." He concluded grandly, and then frowned _yet again_ for some random reason.

"WHAT?" I screamed _yet_ _again_.

"It doesn't flow properly, does it?" He asked. "What should I say instead?"

"'Your normal size'." I concluded. "Now, how are you magically going to make me grow?" I decided that that was the most important thing at the moment.

He looked at me strangely. "With Upelkuchen, of course. Now come here." I ran over to him, and waited patiently as he looked for something in his pocket. He discarded several items onto the floor, including a spool of thread, three thimbles and a tiny box of silver powder that broke open when it hit the floor. I had to dodge the last one, and got the silver substance all over the front of my dress. The dress.

"What will happen to my clothes?" I asked, worried about growing out of them as soon as I began to expand.

"Oh." He stopped, holding a piece of what looked like cake in his hand. It wasn't long before he reached down and plucked me off the floor.

"Hey!" I screamed as the floor shrank below me. I struggled in his grip, but he held me too tightly for me to escape. It was probably just as well that I couldn't get down, for I'm not sure what a fall from that height would have done to me. He took a few steps across the room, and then set me down on the floor again, this time behind a screen.

"Eat this," He said, setting the cake that I had seen him holding just a moment ago on the floor beside me, and then threw a huge mass of black cotton-y fabric down beside me.

"Then put this on." I moved towards the cake, but he pushed me back with one finger.

"Better take the dress off beforehand." He then moved back around to the other side of the screen and waited for me.

I slipped out of the dress, and then walked across the wooden floor and took a large bite of the cake. It was a brownish cake, with white swirly icing on the top, but the cake wasn't particularly important, what were important were the side effects. I felt this weird sensation in my mouth, and then it radiated down my throat and settled in my stomach.

I shook abruptly, having to take a step forward to stop myself falling forwards after this shocking burst of energy. My muscles jerked again, and I suddenly got a little bit bigger. I then shot upwards another inch, then two, and then the growing settled into a steady upwards growth. In just a few moments, I was back to nearly my full size, and then I stopped. I ate another tiny amount, and spurted up to my correct original size, if a little bit taller than usual.

I whooped as I realised that this meant that I could go home, but then stopped myself from getting too excited when I remembered that I still had to grill Tarrant for information. I grimaced, and then pulled on the mass of fabric that turned out to be a large shirt, that reached down to my knees.

I sighed as I realised that the shirt was dull and shapeless. I reached onto a nearby surface, where there was a roll of thick red ribbon, and tied it around my waist to sink the shirt in at my waist. I strolled out from behind the screen, and looked up at him. He was leaning in silence against an empty patch of wall. Mally was muttering, something about never getting any credit, and was sat on the brim of his hat.

"You need to tell me about what that letter said." I spoke, breaking the awkward near-silence. He looked up at me, all that cheeriness that had been in his face when he had been sorting out that food and clothes for me were gone.

"Why?" He asked, still keeping an eye on me. "She wrote that letter to me, not you." I laughed, trying to think of the best way to deal with this annoying character.

"If you do not tell me," I began, keeping my voice light and cheery, "What my grandmother's final words were, to the man that I originally believed to be a bizarre figment of her imagination, then I will gouge your eyes out with a plastic spoon, and feed them to a bird. I will then burn your hat, kill this mouse, strangle you with this ribbon and read the letter myself. Your choice." I smiled sweetly at him, and awaited his response.


	5. Chapter 5

**Alright, I've got these coming in much quicker succession now, so hopefully this will attract some new readers…**

He grinned at me, annoyingly unfazed by this outburst. I swatted Mally from his hat brim to show him that I meant what I said, and then grimaced at him, turned away and stared across the room, stubbornly not looking at him, and purposefully ignoring him.

"I don't even know why my grandmother sent me to see you." I said, shrugging as if to prove my point. "I mean, it's not as if I'm going to have a vision of great meaning or… or have an epiphany or something."

"I don't think that's what she meant for you to." Tarrant said, striding across the floor to meet me. He put one of his hands on my cheek and turned my head towards him, so that I was forced to look at him. Well, my head was turned towards him, but I stubbornly squeezed my eyes tightly shut, so that I didn't have to look him in the eye. He chuckled annoyingly. "Look at me." He said gently. "Please?" I sighed and opened my eyes slowly, taking my time, to try and show him that I was only doing this because my grandmother had asked me to see him, and I was going to take up as much of his time as I wanted to.

When I finally opened my eyes fully, I looked him square in the eye. He looked back at me, tilting his head slightly as if he thought that he could get a better look at me if his vision was on an angle. I rolled my eyes, shook my head and turned away from him, trying to waste time, until he got his fill of looking at me.

"What," I began slowly and deliberately, looking back at him to capture his full attention. "Did it say?" I pursed my lips as I stared at him, and it was his turn to try and avoid my sustained glare. "Well?" I persisted "I'm not going to let this drop." I continued, putting my hand on his cheek to make him look at me.

He poorly attempted to change the subject. "We should really get your clothes from outside." He said weakly. "It looks like it's going to rain, and we don't want them to get wet." He smiled unconvincingly, and headed down the stairs. I sighed, and followed him, jogging down the steps to stay close and not lose sight of him. Mally appeared at my feet as I got to the top of the spiral staircase, and put herself in my way, seeming unwilling to let me pass.

"It wasn't necessary to knock me off the hat." She said angrily, glaring at me. I stopped and waited for her to let me pass. I had forgotten about that incident.

"I was angry." I stated apologetically. "I didn't mean it." I smiled at her sadly. She seemed to regret the fact that I was big again and that she couldn't boss me around anymore, as she had been able to do before. "Friends?" I offered, kneeling down to see her expression more clearly. She was frowning furiously. "I really appreciate how you helped me earlier." I stated, thanking her. "I could never have met Tarrant if you hadn't helped me." I smiled at her more widely.

She scowled more deeply, muttering something indistinct. I seemed to think that that was probably not the best thing to have said to her. With a small 'humph' she turned around and set off down the stairs. Great. Now, not only was Tarrant being difficult, but Mally seemed to hate me. I sighed and set off after them. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I ran out of the door that he had left open behind him to catch up to him. I got outside the doorway and looked out. Tarrant seemed to have crumpled, as he was lying, shaking, over the chair that was at the head of the table. I rushed over to him, and shook him gently when I reached him.

"Tarrant." I said, still shaking him. He was sobbing softly, and he swatted at me with a hand, still face down on the table. "Tarrant!" I shouted, desperately trying to get him off the table so that I could see what was wrong. He leapt off the table and shoved me away, fire suddenly engulfing his eyes.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO BE ME!" He screamed suddenly, shoving me again, screaming angrily at me, and screaming words that I couldn't understand. He turned around and sort of roundhouse kicked the table, sending it flying a few feet through the air before landing on the ground and shattered the dozens of china teacups and teapots that had been set upon it.

"Tarrant!" I screamed back as him, and he snapped around to face me, sudden hope glinting in his eyes until he saw me. I don't know why he looked surprised, but he did. It was weird. I gritted my teeth, and slapped him. Hard. He looked at me strangely before gasping in a delayed fashion and yelling.

"OW!" He screeched, gasping again and put a hand on his cheek where a large red mark was beginning to form. "Why did you do that?" He stared at me with his mouth hanging open and his hand still seemingly glued to his face.

"If someone's having a fit, then that's how you make them snap out of it." I explained, looking at him carefully, to make sure that there were no lingering signs of anger that could lead to another spaz attack.

"At least warn me next time!" He shouted, rubbing his cheek where the slap mark was beginning to fade.

"Now, where would be the fun in that?" I asked, grinning and turning away as I flounced back indoors. He followed me after a short while and joined me indoors. A brisk wind had started to blow, and whirled in through the doorway and made all the odd pieces of loose fabric around the room flutter in the breeze, as if they were waving at the passing air. Tarrant shut the door behind us, and the fabric stopped waving, settling back down to where they had been lying before.

"It's as if it never happened." I murmured to myself, looking around the room to where Tarrant was now standing. He walked over to a sofa that was placed at an awkward angle in the corner of the room. He flung himself down on it, and buried his head in a pillow. My baby cousin does that when she's annoyed, it seems that most of Tarrant's qualities are either childlike or childish. How strange.

I walked quietly over to where he was now lying, and I sat on a small area of the sofa which wasn't occupied by him. I watched him for a while, wondering if he might be sleeping, or dead, but then I heard him speak. The sound was muffled, but he definitely said;

"What do you want?" I sighed.

"You already asked me that, and the answer is still the same; I want to know what my grandmother said."

"If I tell you, will you leave me alone?" I smiled.

"I will if you want me to."

"OK, then." He sat up slowly and looked at me seriously. "Your 'grandmother's'," He seemed reluctant to say that word "last message to me, contained some rather unusual information." He still looked at me, and paused for a moment, as if wondering whether or not to back out at the last minute. "And you probably won't believe me immediately, but we're related." He waited, as if expecting some form of explosive reaction.

"So?" I persisted. Long-lost cousins, uncles and second nieces thrice removed were always popping up on the news, so it wasn't as if this was anything spectacularly unusual.

"So…" He began, seeming surprised that I hadn't spontaneously combusted, or done something slightly more dramatic than say 'so'. "We're related. Quite closely."

"Oh." I replied. I suppose that this was slightly more interesting. "How?"

"I'm your grandfather."


	6. Chapter 6

**Still no new reviews… COME ON, READERS! Me and Beta are working hard on this…**

I began laughing. Him! My grandfather? No way! He only looked about thirty, and my mother was older than that, so there was no physical way that this was a possibility. I looked at him, still chuckling and waiting for him to join in. He didn't join in.

"Wh… what?" I asked, wondering why he was looking at me in that strange way. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Yes." He replied slowly, as if I was a bit thick and needed things explaining to me at a pace that I could understand. Then he frowned angrily. "Why? Aren't I good enough to be a part of your glistening family tree?" He asked sarcastically, before standing up as if to leave.

"No! No!" I hastily replied gripping onto his arm and pulling him back down onto the sofa. "It's just, how old are you? 30?" I asked. He sank back into the sofa and sighed wearily.

"I'm about that age." He replied, closing his eyes and putting his hands on his head in an exasperated fashion.

"Well, my mother is 45, so you can't possibly be her father." I reasoned, hoping that he would see the logic of this after me carefully explaining it to him.

He sighed again and turned his head to look at me. "Time." He said, as if that would explain everything. "Time hates me."

"Riiight." I stalled. "It's just, time is an inanimate measurement, and it can't hate you."

"It can here. I keep forgetting, you're from Aboveland, aren't you?"

"I suppose so." I replied, guessing that anywhere above the giant hole that I had fallen down was technically 'above' this place.

"He slowed right down in our world, but must have sped up in yours, fast enough for three generations to pass in what seemed like five years down here."

"So you are my mother's father." I clarified.

"Yes." He replied, all of this mess finally starting to make sense to me, even if it did seem a bit weird.

"Well, glad we sorted that out." I said, and stood up. "It was nice meeting you." I turned for the door and walked out of it, towards the Tulgey wood and home.

"Wait!" A voice shrieked out of the windmill, as I reached the table.

"What?" I asked, smiling as I turned around to see what this was all about. I was still happy that I had found out what Grandmother had wanted to say to him, so she could now rest in peace, and nothing was going to burst my happy bubble.

"Where are you going?" Tarrant (I accept that he is my grandfather, but calling him that just seems wrong) asked. He was walking towards me, and looked hurt, in his eyes.

"Home." I replied.

"Why?" He asked. He didn't seem to understand the concept of wanting to get home.

"Well, one, because my mother will be going mad wondering where I am, two, because I'm tired and three, because I miss my home." I reasoned, then turned back and carried on walking.

"So you're just going to leave? Just like that?"

"I was planning on it, yes."

"Your family has no honour. Your grandmother did the same thing to me, five years ago, and she left me here to wait for her indefinitely."

"Take that back!" I shouted, whirling around to look him in the eye. "My grandmother had so much honour that she sent me down to look for you _after she died_."

"Of course, much more honourable than just coming down to see me herself."

"Shut up!" I yelled at him. I felt hot anger boiling in my stomach and bubbling up towards my mouth. "Just shut up, and walk away!" The anger kept on boiling, and it now came up to my mouth, frothing over and foul words poured out. "Te po Ostrouman, ne Dobro, sukob Zvucan budala!" I didn't quite understand what I was saying, but it felt good.

Tarrant seemed to be losing it too, as his eyes went orange/red, and he was also hurling sharp, ugly words like knives. But my own words seemed to be forming a shield against them, so I felt no pain at the insults. More nonsense words poured out of my mouth, "Vi ste ne više od svinja i sould kažemo ništa drugo o mom baka, Te će žaljenje to!" We continued like this until we ran out of breath, and then we started again, taking a step towards each other with each supposedly hurtful word that we threw, until we were a foot and had no energy left to insult each other anymore.

I was panting furiously and scowling at him, until I suddenly realised that I couldn't remember what we had been fighting about. I looked back at Tarrant, and saw him grinning happily.

"Sorry." I apologised.

"Why are you saying 'sorry'?" He asked, still grinning. "That was amazing!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "I thought that I was being terrifying?"

"Well, yes, but your eyes went red and everything!" I touched just under my eye, as if to check that it was still there. It was.

"Why is that impressive?" I asked; if I had been watching that, I would have been scared stiff. "I feel terrible now." It was true, I had a stinging pain in my head, and I felt sick.

Tarrant looked sympathetic slash worried now. "I know, but it goes away in a while. I find that drinking tea helps." He reached out and held onto my arm, guiding me towards the windmill house and sitting me down on the sofa once we were inside.

I went from sitting down to curling up in a ball on the sofa, somehow, trying hard to stop bright, and invasive rays of light from penetrating my vision and burning up my eyes. I heard the loud screeching of steam escaping from a kettle, and clamped my hands down over my ears to stop my eardrums from being ripped. I whimpered in confusion as the world seemed to be closing in on me, every little sound was amplified what seemed like thirty quintillion times, and there was a big white hole in the middle of my vision.

I groaned, and even that sound was enough to make my ears ring. I squeezed me eyes shut more tightly, and then heard a series of loud bangs. They seemed to get louder, until I thought that my head was going to explode from the sheer volume of the noise itself. Eventually it stopped, though my head was still ringing, and my ears felt like they were about to pressed into my head because I was pushing down on them so hard.

"Are you OK?" A loud voice asked, and the words echoed around my skull, eventually making me want to crack my head open to get them out of there. There was then a loud hissing noise, and both noises stopped. There was a quiet muttering noise that was a huge relief from the loud noise that preceded it. I almost sighed with relief, but then considered that that small noise alone could cause my head to fall apart.

I rested on the sofa for a small while, until the white light that had filled my vision had subsided slightly, allowing me to open one eye a small amount, just enough to let some soft colours filter into my vision. I let my other eye also open, just a crack, and let the same colours enter that one too.

I sighed, and allowed both eyes to open fully, taking in the view that was now in front of me.

"Tarrant?" I asked, waiting for the skull splitting pain to invade my head, but all that came was an annoying buzz that quickly subsided.

"Yes?" he asked, coming down the stairs that led to the raised part of the first floor, and knelt down next to me so that I wouldn't have to shout for him to hear.

"Does tea really help?" I whispered, looking him in the eye. I sounded like a five year old, weak and desperate for help that couldn't come.

Tarrant smiled back at me. "Not as much as I'd like it to, but it takes the edge off it."

"Tea, please." I whispered, exhaustion overwhelming me, and making me close my eyes again.

"Of course." He replied, standing up and walking back up the stairs. I relaxed, letting my thoughts drift around inside my head and heal the wounds that the other sharp noises had caused. I heard more footsteps, and Tarrant came back down the stairs towards me. I smiled at him, and held out an arm to receive one of the two cups of tea that he was holding. He gave me one, and sat cross legged in front of me as he drank his own.

I let the many browns and oranges in the clear tea swirl around in the cup before taking a sip. The tea was better than any other that I had ever tasted, and that made me smile.

"What is in this?" I asked, letting the steam slide up my face as it swirled out of the cup and up into the air.

"Ollaliberries, marionberries, sea-buckthorn berries and lingonberries."

"I like it." I said. "Tea is one of my favourite drinks, but not many children my age like it. At least, not in Aboveland."

"Not in Underland either, but I think that you inherited that from me. Like your kaleidoscope eyes." We both smiled at this. Then I asked,

"What were you saying? When you were shouting at me?"

"I'd rather not translate it directly, but I was speaking in Outlandish. It's the language spoken by the resistance, who are the people that didn't want the Red Queen to rule." He sighed, probably remembering something. "Your grandmother led the fight against her, and slayed the Jabberwocky, the beast that the Red Queen had under her control to repress anyone that dared fight back." Tarrant was gazing deeply into his tea. "It killed my clan." He said quietly. "None of them had done anything; it just killed them because she told it to." There was a small silence, and I noticed a tear sliding down his face and into his tea. "I'm the only one left. All my family is gone."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know." I felt my eyes twinge, and suspected that they had gone light blue, like his did. "You have me." I offered, a small girl to replace an entire family. It sounded lousy, but it was all that I could think of.

"Yes." He smiled timidly, as if he was scared to smile while the memory of his family still lingered in the air. "I do." We both drank our teas in silence for a while, until he asked me a question.

"Has anything like this ever happened before?"

"No." I replied, frowning as I tried to recollect anything similar previously happening. "This was the first time."

"I wonder if being in Underland sparked it, or being near me?"

"I don't know, but they both sound likely."

"And, what was it that _you_ were saying?"

"I'm not sure." I replied. "Actually, I think it was Serbian." I had an aunt that lived in Serbia, and what I had said sounded like something that she would say. "Although, I don't know any Serbian, so that would be strange."

"The rants just came naturally, most of the time you don't even know what you're saying. I based Outlandish around what I said when I first… 'lost it', so now it has a meaning." I smiled at him.

"That was clever." My head stung, and I had to lean back against the sofa pillows. "How do you deal with this?" I asked him; if I had to deal with this on a regular basis (and I probably will) I might have killed myself by now.

"Actually, you're dealing with it very well. Maybe the effects have been watered down through two generations, but the first time that I had one of these fits, I fainted for a week."

"I think I might be about to." I joked, but I did feel terrible again. "The tea didn't help at all." I groaned, putting a pillow over my face to block out the light.

"I suppose that different things work for different people." He stated, standing up to go and wash the cups. Suddenly, I jumped off the sofa, ignoring the sudden burst of light that invaded my vision, ran out the front door and threw up into a nearby bush.

"Yuck." I moaned, wiping my mouth on the back of my arm. Tarrant rushed out to help me, grabbing my arm as I almost let my legs give way and fell onto the ground. He supported me back into the living room where I collapsed onto the sofa and immediately went back to sleep, suddenly exhausted from vomiting.

The last thing I heard that day was, "Well, maybe she's more like me than I thought."


	7. Chapter 7

I woke up, yawning as I was still tired from the long sleep, but awake enough to get up. I looked around the room, and for a scary few seconds, I forgot where I was and what I was doing here. But then, I remembered and sank back down onto the cushions with a sigh of relief.

"Oh, good, you're awake! I thought that you'd gone into a coma because you were sleeping so deeply. I tell you, Mally came in here shouting the house down because she was worried about you and you still didn't wake up!"

I could tell from the relentless babble of words that Tarrant knew I was up, and adamant to keep me that way. I saw him walk down the stairs and sit down on the sofa next to me.

"I had to keep watch over you all night, because you never know when a person might wake up and decide to just run away into the Tulgey wood. You could have gotten hurt, and we couldn't have that, now, could we?" His voice was getting faster and faster, and I could tell that he was fighting to keep it under control.

"Tarrant!" I yelled, sitting up abruptly so that I could look him in the eye. "Stop!"

"Fez… I'm fine." He stammered, looking back up at me and seeing the concern in my eyes. "Your grandmother used to look at me in that exact same way." He smiled. I attempted a smile, but it was quickly thwarted by what I had to say next.

"Tarrant… I want to go home." I said quietly, breaking the news as easily as I could.

"Oh." He said. "I thought you would stay. I mean, your grandmother didn't, so I don't know why I expected you to." He stood up, his eyes now almost white with just a swirl of blue coming from the middle. "The jabberwocky took my clan, Alice, and now I suppose that it's indirectly taking you from me."

"Tarrant, I…"

"Save it." He said, almost inaudibly. "Have a nice life." He walked dejectedly towards the stairs, and began to climb them.

"Tarrant!" I yelled, again. "I want you to come with me." He stopped halfway up the stairs and turned to look at me. His eyes filled with green, it still looked heavily diluted, but it was definitely green. I knew what that meant.

"What?" He asked, presumably because he wanted to be certain of what he had just heard.

"I want you to come home with me." I repeated, hoping against hope that I would get the answer that I had been looking for.

"Are… are you sure?" He asked, stuttering, but smiling. "I mean, will there be a place for me up there? I've seen how you and Alice are dressed, and how you look, and you don't look like me."

"If you're worried about your appearance, personally I like it and there are millions of people wearing weirder clothes than you up in Aboveland." I thought of all the Goths and hippies that I'd passed in London, and frankly, I preferred Tarrant's appearance to theirs.

"Alright, then," He smiled massively, "I'll do it." I squealed with excitement and then jumped off the sofa and threw myself at him in a huge hug. He hugged me back, laughing heartily and tears of joy ran down both our faces.

I spent the next day with Tarrant, telling him all about Aboveland and Mother and the house and what cars were and all sorts of things that he was curious about. Mally came around at one point to ask what all the shouting was about (I'd been showing him how to attract a Taxi driver's attention in the middle of London, just in case he ever needed to use one) and we had to tell her about our plans to return to the Aboveland. She was massively upset to start off with, but then he solemnly swore to return with expensive pieces of cheese, so she relented slightly, and went off to spread the news.

Tarrant packed a small fabric bag with some necessities and memories, including the only picture of my grandmother that had been included in the envelope. He also took a ring out of his set of drawers, and slid it into his pocket. I really wanted to ask what it was, but I only saw him do this because I was peeking around the edge of the door when he thought that I had been restoring my hat, which had become muddied and ripped from being left outside. Plus, the blue cat had taken a liking to it as a scratching post, so if you have a cat you will know what it looked like after that incident.

Also, I happily realised that the hat had been made by Tarrant, (I'm sure that you lot already worked that out, but I was a bit preoccupied by asthma attacks, dead grandmother, new grandfather, being shrunk, being stretched and throwing my first hissy fit that resulted in throwing up in a bush and blacking out for thirteen hours to notice. I hope you'll forgive me) and this meant that he could probably make me a new one _exactly_ like it when he had the time, but we expected to be quite busy for the first few weeks sorting everything out. Tarrant seemed to expect to be able to walk into the house and be accepted immediately, but I knew mum and expected that she would take a bit of persuading.

At midday we set off to the room of doors. Tarrant had absolutely no idea where that was, so I had to lead him there myself. We wandered across the field and into the Tulgey wood. Somehow, the darkness seemed a little less intense and the path seemed a little wider when Tarrant was there, but it was still quite scary. Tarrant's eyes flashed a protective orange colour as I flinched when a branch suddenly came out of nowhere to half an inch in front of my face. We talked about nothing in particular for the half hour that it took us to hike the Tulgey wood.

"I sprinted that." I said matter-of-factly as we came out and into the garden.

"You ran, flat out, right through the Tulgey woods?" he asked, giving me a look that made me think that he didn't believe me.

"I did!" I replied my voice rose with insistent pitch. "That's why I very nearly _died_ when I came out the other side."

"Hmm." He considered. "Perhaps." Then he turned his attention back to where he was walking.

We walked in silence for a while, it wasn't awkward, it was just that we had been talking to each other all day so far, and neither had any pressing questions on our minds at the moment.

Then, a pressing question appeared.

"What was that liquid that you were staring at?"

"What?" He asked, looking down at me.

"The stuff in the bottle, you were staring at it when I burst dramatically out of the forest into the clearing."

"Oh." He realised. "You mean the stuff that makes you small."

"Yes." I clarified.

"It was pishalver." He answered.

"And why were you staring at it?" I asked.

He went quiet for a moment and looked guilty when he answered, "I was going to kill myself." I stopped walking suddenly, and turned to face him fully.

"Why?" I asked, shrieking at him.

"Your grandmother had left when she was nineteen, promising to return. She said, 'I'll be back before you know it'. Doesn't that sound like a promise to you?"

"Yes, it does."

"Well she _did_ visit. Once." He continued. "And I foolishly thought that she would come back again, but she never did. She completely forgot that I even existed." He started walking again, and I joined him, eager to hear the rest of his story. "I couldn't bear that thought, and Mally suggested that she might have… passed away. Well, that made much more sense, as I was sure that she couldn't have forgotten me so suddenly, but I couldn't bear the thought of a world with no Alice, so I wanted to join her in eternal peace." He stopped talking for a moment, and then went on. "I see now that I was wrong, and that it is indeed possible to live in a world without her, at least now that I know she didn't forget about me." He smiled at me, and I smiled back. "Plus, I have you now, so all the more reason for me to keep on living." I giggled at this, and then realise something.

"But wouldn't that have just made you really, really small?"

"Supposedly, yes, but I've heard that pishalver works by killing off cells, so if you drink too much of it you have no cells left to kill, you just disappear."

"Oh."

"Yes."

"How does the other one work?" I wondered.

"We think that it works by speeding up the natural process of cell division that occurs in any living being." He waved his hand, dismissing the idea as too complicated to discuss. "It's magical." He concluded.

We walked on, coming up to the room of doors. "Here we are!" I called to him, running up to the small door, and then realising that I was now too big to fit through it. "How are we going to…?" I started, but then stopped as Tarrant pulled two small vials of Pishalver out of his bag. I smiled, and took one from him. I grimaced from the idea that parts of me were being killed while I drank it, but then I finished the vial, so there was no more reason to worry.

I stopped shrinking when I was just a few inches smaller than the doorway, and ran through, clasping the shirt as I ran through. Tarrant's clothes shrunk with him, and he saw me looking at them strangely.

"I embedded them with pishalver and upelkuchen a while ago; in this land you never know when you might be growing or shrinking." He ran through the door to meet me, and then dug some Upelkuchen out of his bag, handed me some, then took a bite out of his and started growing. "Just take one bite!" He warned, now thrice my size. I took one bite, and shot up to my normal size, the ribbon that had been tied around my waist was now too loose, so I readjusted it and looked up at the ceiling, then the floor, then the ceiling again before giving in and wondering aloud where the hole had gone.

"What hole?" Tarrant asked. "Where do we go from here?" I jumped up and down on the floor, but it didn't give way. "Why are you jumping?" He asked, now sounding rather frustrated. I was frustrated too, but then saw a glass table from the corner of my eye. I ran over to the table, and picked it up, delighted by its weight and density. I walked back over to where I had been before, and hurled it down at the floor. The floor gave slightly, a huge crack appearing in the tiles. I lifted the table above my head again, and threw it down at the floor. This time a large section of the floor fell away, the tiles falling down the endless hole that now stretched out beneath us, followed by the table, swirling gracefully after them. Tarrant's mouth hung open, looking from the hole to me and back again about seven times.

"Close your eyes and jump." I told him, grinning widely and stepping off the edge and into the swirling darkness waiting for me inside.


	8. Chapter 8

I cackled as I spun down the hole, not as scared as I had been before, just enjoying the sensation of falling freely without limitations or constrictions. I heard Tarrant yelling my name after me, desperately calling for me.

"Trust me!" I yelled back, cackling again as a rush of adrenaline took over from common sense. I heard him yelling with fear as he leaped into the hole, and continuing as he fell an alarming distance. I sighed and spread my arms and legs to slow my decent. He quickly caught up with me, he was in a cannonball position with his arms wrapped around his legs and his eyes tightly shut. I adopted that position too, speeding up to fall at the same speed that he was falling.

"How do you get your hat to stay on your head?" I asked; that had been a serious issue when I had been falling down the hole. Talking about that, what direction _was_ I falling? It felt like I was falling down, but was I really falling _up_?

Tarrant opened his eyes, looking at me with a weird mix of anger and concern.

"Don't _ever_ do that again!" He yelled over the air that was whipping past our faces. I giggled happily, and leant forwards to tumble through the empty space in front of me.

"Why?" I asked. "Aren't you enjoying the decent?"

"I thought that I had lost you!" He yelled at me "Just like I lost her."

"Sorry!" I yelled back, "but this is literally the only way back home."

"What about Jabberwocky blood?"

"Is that some kind of swearing phrase down here?"

"No!" He shouted back. "The blood of the Jabberwocky carried the drinker to wherever they imagine. It took Alice home, quickly and painlessly. She told me about…" I don't think that he ever got to finish his sentence, because after that word had left his mouth, we landed on the earthy floor surrounding the hole in the ground. I panted; the impact had been reasonably hard, but nothing was broken, and it was much better than it could have been. I felt gravity starting to act on me again, starting to lift strands of hair off my head.

"Get through the hole!" Tarrant shouted at me, because he too had noticed the few changes indicating the gravitational directional swap. I scrambled through the hole, and flopped down onto the grass that surrounded it on the other side. Tarrant got his arms around to this side, and then the gravity of this world started acting on him fully, and he was left grabbing onto the weak stems of grass sprouting out of the ground to stop him falling back down the endless hole.

I launched at him, grabbing onto his arm before he had a chance to slip back down. He strained against gravity, pulling himself up and over the edge, with my help, just as my grip was about to fail. We landed in a gasping heap on the grass, and took a few moments to catch our breath before bursting into a random fit of giggles.

Tarrant rolled onto his back, and looked up at the sky.

"Wow." He said. "The sky here is white!"

"No." I replied, giggling again. "It's cloudy. The sky here is blue, just like in Underland."

"Oh."

"There are quite a few things that you have that we don't have here, but we also have a few things that you don't, like electricity." I knew that this would mean nothing to him, but it sounded fancy.

"Wow. I have no idea what that is." He said blankly. "So, you live in the middle of a field. Nice tree." He said, clearly puzzled by our location.

"This is my garden, my house is over there." I told him, pointing east to the location of my home. "Let's get going." I stood up, and then saw a huge muddy stain down the side of the shirt that he had lent me. "Oh my, God!" I exclaimed, stretching it out to the side to see the full extent of the damage, the stain reached up the whole left side of the garment.

"Never mind," Tarrant said, seeing the stain but not apparently caring. "I have plenty more, and so do you." He reasoned, continuing in the direction that I had pointed out. I let go of the shirt and followed him, running the first few yards to catch up with him, and then slowing down to a normal walking pace as I fell in stride with him. We were walking and talking for a while, until the house came into view as we came around a corner.

"There it is!" I shouted, pointing it out to him and practically bouncing up and down with excitement from how close we were to it. I looked up at him, and he was practically bouncing up and down with anticipation too. "Want to run?" I asked grinning at him.

"Three, two, one go!" He shouted, kicking off from the ground and breaking into a sprint. I joined him, racing him at some points and letting him win at others. It was a five minute run, and normally I wouldn't have managed it, but joy seemed to propel me towards the house. We arrived at the house, neither of us even breathing heavily, and both of us were grinning from ear to ear. I climbed up the stairs and he followed eagerly. I slid my key into the lock, and turned it to open the door.

"Welcome home." I told him, grinning, and I was reassured that everything would be alright from now on.

**The End **


End file.
